This spinach, grape and blue cheese salad is so simple and yet so delicious. The sweet sweet grapes, the salty blue cheese and the chew of a few dates. All combined with the slight irony bite of spinach. So good!!!
And the salad dressing, again so simple, 3 ingredients and yet it transforms salad leaves! I have tried this with more complicated dressings and time and time again I go back to the simple vinaigrette I first made for this dish. It is a simple mix of extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar and honey. Perfect, but when something is that simple you want the best ingredients. It isn't often I suggest buying the most expensive, but I promise the difference an excellent extra virgin olive oil makes to this dressing is immense!
Ha!!! How many times did I say simple in that paragraph!!! Are you sensing the dressing is simple to make????? 😉
For this salad I use a wonderful blue cheese that I buy in the supermarket, it is creamy and delicious but still has a bit of a crumbly texture to it, meaning it doesn't turn to a cheese mush or a cheese slime when you toss it through the dressing. You want to be going more towards a stilton than a gorgonzola.
If you aren't a fan of blue cheese then a nice Danish feta works really well too.
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This is a great salad to get ready in advance. I mix the grapes and dates together in a pot. Mix the dressing up in a jar/ziplock bag. Crumble the blue cheese into a small pot, and just take the spinach in the bag it came in. To serve, open the spinach and dress the leaves whilst it is still in the bag. Empty onto a plate/bowl and then tumble the sweet grapes, chewy dates and salty cheese over the top in a random fashion or in a neatly arranged pattern...totally up to you....guess which I choose 😉
Easy, done and be ready for the smiles as this tastes so much more than it looks. It looks pretty but it tastes amazing!
Enjoy x
Get the Recipe
Spinach, Grape and Blue Cheese Salad
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- ½ tablespoon runny honey
- salt and pepper
- ⅓ cup dried dates
- ½ cup blue cheese
- 1⅓ g seedless red grapes
- 7 oz baby spinach
Instructions
- Pour the extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar and honey along with a pinch of salt and pepper into a jar.
- Screw on the lid and shake well until emulsified.
- Cut the dates (and grapes if they are large) into small pieces.
- Crumble the blue cheese.
- This can all be done in advance and just kept covered in the fridge.
- Open the spinach bag and pour the dressing directly into the bag. Toss gently.
- Arrange the spinach on a large platter and then tumbled over the dates, grapes and blue cheese.
- Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Nutrition is per serving
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